Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, Passes
One of the greatest Americans ever, indeed one of the greatest humanitarians of all time, Dr. Norman Borlaug, the Father of the Green Revolution, passed away Sept. 12. at the age of 95.
Norman Borlaug is credited with saving perhaps a billion lives. Few have come close to that achievement; Louis Pasteur and Jonas Salk are the only names in that pantheon that spring to mind.
Some clippings from the Web:
Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug dies at 95
By Janet DiGiacomo, CNN, 09/13/2009 [here]
(CNN) — Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who helped develop disease-resistant wheat used to fight famine in poor countries, died Saturday. He was 95.
Borlaug died from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said.
A 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug was a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university.
Borlaug started at Texas A&M in 1984, after working as a scientist in a program that introduced scientific techniques for preventing famine in Mexico, according to the university.
Until recently, he traveled worldwide working for improvements in agricultural science and food policy, said Kathleen Phillips, a university spokeswoman.
Borlaug was known as a champion of high-yield crop varieties, and other science and agricultural innovations to help fight hunger in developing nations.
“We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted,” Borlaug said recently in an interview posted on the university’s Web site.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, according to the university’s Web site.
The agriculture institute at the university was named after him in 2006.
Borlaug also created the World Food Prize, which recognized the work of scientists and humanitarians who have helped fight world hunger through advanced agriculture, the university said.
A memorial service will be held at the university at a later date.
Accident Takes Life of Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Employee
NEWS RELEASE — Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, August 21, 2009 [here]
Baker City , OR – August 21, 2009: Wallowa-Whitman National Forest employee, Steven A. Uptegrove, 52, was killed Thursday morning when he was struck by a falling snag. Uptegrove was part of a forest crew assisting the Baker County Narcotics Enforcement Team with the eradication of an illegal marijuana garden on national forest lands south of Unity, Oregon.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic accident,” said Steve Ellis, Wallowa-Whitman Forest Supervisor. “Our thoughts and our prayers are with the Uptegrove family during this difficult time.”
The accident occurred on the West Fork of Bull Run Creek where forest crew members were bundling sling loads of trash for helicopter transport. Efforts to revive Uptegrove were unsuccessful.
“Our hearts go out to Steve’s family and friends. He is well-known and loved by many. We in the Forest Service feel a deep sense of loss,” said Mary Wagner, Pacific Northwest Regional Forester.
Uptegrove was a career Forest Service employee having worked over 30 years in the fire program. He has worked as the station lead and engine foreman in Unity since 2006. “Steve was a professional wildland firefighter, a positive, always cheerful member of the Burnt Powder Fire Zone, and a leader and teacher of firefighters at Unity,” said Noel Livingston, Fire Management Officer for the Burnt Powder Fire Zone. Prior to working in Unity, he worked on the Prairie City Ranger District on the Malhuer National Forest. He also worked for the Payette, Willamette, and Deschutes National Forests.
The accident is under investigation by Federal, state and local authorities.
Steve is survived by his wife, Hope, who currently resides in Baker County, Oregon.
For additional information contact Judy Wing, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Public Affairs Officer, 541-519-4623.
In Memorium: Kris Fairbanks
Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer Kris Fairbanks was shot and killed by a convicted felon Saturday. Fairbanks was a certified canine officer with 15 years in the USFS. She leaves behind a teenage daughter and her husband, a Fish and Wildlife officer. See [here] for a press report.
Don Svetich, Engine Captain and Forest Protection Officer on the Olympic National Forest sent the following email to friends:
It is with very heavy heart that I write this note.
Yesterday, Sept 20, 2008 a friend, co-worker, partner and protector was killed in the line of duty.
I will miss Kris Fairbanks. She and I worked together on a regular bases, Kris and her K-9 partner Radar, were there to control the situation and to cover my back when I needed it most. (The same goes for the other LEOs that work on the Forest.)
I will miss her love of the Forest and her job, the energy she put into it and her desire to serve the people who visited the Olympic National Forest. Thanks Kris! for keeping this fat old man out of deeper crap, thanks for the memories.
Please keep Kris and her family in your thoughts and prayers!To all Forest LEOs, thank you for the job you are willing do, thanks for being there when most are not.
Thanks for backing us up when we need it!!
Thanks again Forest 951, I will miss you !!
Arizona Strip Reunion
This note came to us in reference to “Cattle and Wildlife on the Arizona Strip” in the W.I.S.E. Colloquium Wildlife Sciences [here]:
Just ran across this blog. Wanted to let you know that my father, Joe Zumwalt was raised on the strip, his parents Edward Zumwalt and Georgia Lann-Zumwalt ran cattle up there for many years. He had a sister Evelyn (just passed away last Tuesday), and his brother Jimmy (also passed away years ago) My dad was born in 1932ish in St. George. He has tons of great stories and memories about growing up in that area, was great friends with the Bundy family too. I would love to put him in touch with anyone that lived up there then.
I think it would be really cool to arrange a reunion for anyone that lived on the strip sometime soon, and have a great weekend of story telling and sharing memories and making new ones and a little bluegrass music.
How could I get in touch with these folks?? If anyone reads this that would be interested in something like that please contact me. I would love to make a documentary for this reunion if it happens.
Thanks
JoJo Zumwalt
Sacramento CA
Please email W.I.S.E. for info on contacting JoJo
Iron 44 Fallen Firefighter Tribute
A tribute to the firefighters who died on the Iron Complex at Helispot 44 will be held on Friday August 15, 2008 at the Lithia Motors Amphitheater on the Jackson County Fairgrounds from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
More information can be found at Grayback Forestry [here].
From the Associated Press [here]:
Officials work to ID remains from helicopter crash
WEAVERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities on Sunday finished collecting badly burned remains from the crash site of a firefighting helicopter in the Northern California wilderness.
A day earlier, helicopters carrying flag-draped stretchers that bore some of the remains were greeted by an honor guard of firefighters at a nearby airstrip.
Accompanied by a fire engine escort, the stretchers were taken to the Shasta County coroner’s office in Redding. Authorities there would probably have to rely on DNA analysis and dental records to identify the bodies, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Tom Kroll said.
Nine people were killed in the crash.
The helicopter was ferrying 10 firefighters, two pilots and a U.S. Forest Service employee back to base camp Tuesday after crews battled a fire about 215 miles northwest of Sacramento.
The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter had just been refueled when it lifted off from a remote clearing, struck a tree and plummeted into a hillside, according to National Transportation Safety Board officials. The chopper then erupted into flames.
Two of the four men who survived the crash, firefighters Michael Brown, 20, and Jonathan Frohreich, 18, both of Medford, Ore., were discharged from the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on Saturday. They suffered facial burns and broken bones.
Brown said Saturday that he couldn’t remember anything about the crash but felt that he was spared because “God had his hand wrapped around me.”
He said he was mourning the loss of friends: “Those guys were brothers to me.”
Pilot William Coultas of Oregon has undergone skin grafting for severe burns. He was in critical condition Sunday, said Martha Alcott, a spokeswoman for UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The following seven Grayback firefighters lost their lives in the helicopter crash:
Shawn Blazer, 30 from Medford, Ore.
Scott Charleson, 25 from Phoenix, Ore.
Matthew Hammer, 23 from Grants Pass, Ore.
Edrik Gomez, 19, from Ashland, Ore.
Steven Renno, 21, Cave Junction, Ore
Bryan Rich, 29, from Medford, Ore.
David Steele, 19, from Ashland, Ore.
Three Grayback employees survived the crash:
Jonathon Frohreich and Michael Brown were released from UC Davis Medical Center on Sunday August 10. Rick Schroeder, at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, remains in critical condition.
more »
The Bear Creek Guard Station
From Al Stangenberger, College of Natural Resources, U.C. Berkeley:
The photos are of the old Bear Creek Guard Station, which is just over the hills to the south of Summer Camp [The UC Forestry Summer Camp is in Meadow Valley, west of Quincy, CA]. Bear Creek drains into the Middle Fork of the Feather River.
The station was built in the early days of the USFS when rangers patrolled on horseback. It was a really nice spot. Rudy Grah took me up to see it a year or so before he died.
The Bear Creek Guard Station in 1915, built with hand-split ponderosa pine shakes. Note the open, park-like forest. The forest structure was the result of many hundreds of years of regular, seasonal, anthropogenic (Maidu Indian) fires.
The Bear Creek Guard Station in 2005. Note the invasion of the older forest by a thicket of younger cohort pine, Douglas-fir, and white fir, the result of 90 years without forest stewardship or Indian fires.
A careless guest used the stove and didn’t do it correctly.
Al writes:
Too bad, it was a really nice artifact. The stable building still survives.
For many of us, a tragic loss and poignant memories of Summer Camp, Rudy Grah, and the Plumas NF.
And for many others, perhaps, a lesson in history and forest development pathways. Without stewardship, ancient treasures will be lost.
Thank you for the memories and the lesson, Al.
In Memorium - Dr. Benjamin Stout
A great forester, teacher, and I am proud to say my friend, Dr. Benjamin Stout, passed away last Fall. The following obituary was written by his family, especially by his daughter Susan, Research Project Leader at the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station in Irvine, PA. Ben and Susan were the only father/daughter Fellows of the Society of American Foresters in the history of that organization.
Ben was greatly admired, respected, and loved, and he is greatly missed. All of his friends in Oregon once again extend our sympathies to his family.
Benjamin Boreman Stout, 83, 1545 Takena St., SW, Albany, OR died Sunday morning July 29, 2007 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, OR.
He was born March 2, 1924 in Parkersburg, WV and grew up on the Stoutland Farm in Ben Lomond, WV. He graduated from Point Pleasant (WV) High School in 1941 and enrolled as a forestry student at West Virginia University. After the start of World War II, he enrolled in the Enlisted Reserve and was called to active duty on May 13, 1943. He served with Patton’s army in the Europe, liberating a concentration camp, and participating in Patton’s grand march toward Berlin. His military experience was recognized with the Bronze Star “for meritorious achievement in ground combat against the armed enemy in the European Theater of Operations.”
After his return from war service, he completed a bachelor’s degree in forestry at West Virginia University in 1947. He went on to earn a master’s degree in forestry from Harvard University in 1950 and a Ph.D. in forest ecology from Rutgers University in 1967. The first steps in his career were as a consultant forester, and then as manager of Harvard’s Black Rock Forest in Cornwall, NY. Later, he served as Professor of Silviculture at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he went on to serve as Chair of Biological Sciences and Associate Provost (1959 - 1978). He ended his academic career as the Dean of the School of Forestry at the University of Montana in Missoula from 1978 through 1985. Finally, before his retirement, he served as director of the acid deposition research program for the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement from 1985 until his retirement in 1991.
